"But it always seemed that the immigration issue would get the genuine bigots fulminating with red faces from the back of the room, to the extent you just didn't want to even associate with 'em."
Mywife is a legal immigrant born in Korea.
She is adamantly opposed to illegal immigration and to amnesty and the kinds of unfair leg up for illegal immigrants. I think legal immigrants know more than anyone that immigration is a privilege that shouldnt be abused by lawbreakers.
"She is adamantly opposed to illegal immigration and to amnesty and the kinds of unfair leg up for illegal immigrants. I think legal immigrants know more than anyone that immigration is a privilege that shouldnt be abused by lawbreakers."
I would certainly not dispute that. I was trying to point out that the tendency of some unsavory characters to be attracted to this has made it difficult to deal with the policy issues in a rational way. IOW, one reason that the left has been able to tar the real immigration reform movement as racist is that there are some actual racists who (loudly) demand some of the same policies that we do.
But, that's largely water under the bridge, at least for now. The issue, for a lot of reasons, has broken out from its niche or regional base, and has generated a broad mainstream consensus: "Enforcment first. No amnesty. We'll talk about "guest workers" after we settle the first two." This is not necessarily how I would want to approach things in an ideal world, but rather is my read as to what seems to be a rapidly building centrist consensus position, at least for folks outside of the beltway.